Apple decrees Spotify worthy of iPhone

iPhone users will soon be able to enjoy their Spotify-subscription tunes over their Apple smartphones. A Spotify iPhone app has just been approved for distribution through the iTunes App Store.

This news comes by way of a report from paidContent:UK, which obtained that rarest of treats: an actual confirmation message from an Apple spokeswoman.

"The current status as of right now [sic] is it's been approved and we hope to add the app to the more than 65,000 apps on the app store very soon," she told them. "We've been in constant communication working with the developer and have already notified Spotify that the app will be in the app store very soon."

This is good news for Spotify's international users, but not yet of special interest to folks in the US, where the music-streaming service is not yet available. Statesiders can find out why here. The company has said, however, that the service should be available in the US in the second half of this year.

It also may be good news to RealNetworks, which announced its own iPhone app for the Rhapsody music-subscription service just this Monday - although Apple has yet to comment on when (or if) that app might appear.

Allowing Spotify and disallowing Rhapsody would seem erratic and illogical. But Apple has been known to be both in its App Store approval processes.

Other mobile devices may also be Spotified. An Android version was demoed at Google's I/O developer event this May, and a Spotify employee gave the admittedly less-than-stirring answer of "maybe" when asked if there were a Windows Mobile version in the oven.

According to paidContent:UK, the app will - unsurprisingly - be a free download, with a monthly subscription rate of £9.99. An annual subscription plan will almost certainly be £120, the cost of the required Premium service. ®